Today’s episode of Big City Greens is pretty run of the mill, but does take a rather adult twist at times and introduces us to a new friend of Cricket’s that we might see more of in the future.
Little Buddy
Cricket and Tilly are spending time at the Community Center where they have volunteered to be part of the Big Buddy and Little Buddy program….for the pizza. Community Sue is genuinely trying to do something good but alas, Cricket just wants that pizza. Tilly is paired with Emma, but Cricket is teamed up with a rabid wild child named Chase. Cricket immediately asks for a new little buddy but is told that Chase is his responsibility until 3:00, when the program is over and the pizza is received.
During craft time, Chase uses the time to craft spitballs to shoot at the other kids but Chase glitter bombs cricket and bright, rainbow colored Cricket restrains the child using pipe cleaners before seeking advice from Tilly, who has her own problem with her little buddy, Emma. Emma has told other children of Tilly’s advice and they are starting to flock in her direction.
Back with Cricket and Chase, the pair have a moment where they connect over how to land after stunts, and Cricket realizes this is how he can get the child to stop terrorizing him. Together, they ditch the rest of the programming and continue to do pranks and stunts and bond.
Tilly however, has one of the most over-the-heads-of-children moments I’ve seen in the series so far, where her children followers, or “Tillites,” seek her knowledge, advice, and wisdom. Yeah, it’s a cult. They even show off an “Assimilation station” where the kids are cutting their hair to look like hers, and her original Little Buddy, Emma, cuts off her own hair to give to Tilly as a gift.
Cricket is about to pull off the most outrageous stunt with Crash when the clock strikes 3, and you know what that means…. It’s Pizza time! And Cricket checks out before finishing the stunt, much to the disappointment of Crash. When Cricket goes to enjoy his hard earned pizza, he gets a dodgeball to the face and sees Crash running away in tears.
Community Sue tells Cricket to shake it off, this is how Crash normally is and that she is surprised that Cricket lasted more than an hour with him, but also explains that she picked Cricket as his big buddy because maybe they could be friends in the long run.
This weighs heavy on Cricket, and we see a Sarah McLachlan/ASPCA-esque montage of Cricket spending time with Crash, with many events in the montage being a product of Cricket’s overactive imagination. As he goes to get Crash back, the child evades him using all the skills that Cricket has taught him over the day. At the same time, Tilly is running away from all of her followers, but gets them off her back by telling them to close their eyes and meditate while she sleeps quietly away. The kids, again saying something that will go right over the heads of the kiddos, believe that she has ascended. These toddlers can’t write down Tilly’s wisdom, but they know the word “ascension.” So good.
Cricket finally catches up with Crash and together, they reunite and pull off the most outrageous stunt the community center has ever seen. I suspect we might see more of Crash in the future of Big City Greens.
While the predictable Crash/Cricket storyline is the heart of this episode, I’m very impressed and thoroughly enjoyed Tilly’s cult following. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, This show is for the young audience but sometimes skews more adult, and Tilly’s cult is one of the greatest examples of that I’ve seen in the series thus far.
Zen Garden
It’s tilling and planting day at the Green family farm and Bill is overworked and overstressed. As Bill passes out at the breakfast table, Ex-wife and self admitted “baby momma” Nancy shows up to help the family out. She gives Bill and Gramma gift certificates for the local Spa so they can relax while she takes care of everything. Of course, Bill is reluctant to the idea of leaving his livelihood in the care of his irresponsible ex-wife. Gramma coaxes him into the truck to go to the spa, and leaves a literal mile long to-do list to take care of plow and planting day.
This list seems pointless at first, with things like singing a planting song 25 times (complete with sheet music), heating garden gloves, or brushing the animals a few hundred times.
Nancy immediately starts having problems with the animals not responding to her and misbehaving, and Cricket and Tilly realize something is wrong if what Nancy said is true, then the animals shouldn’t be reacting like this.
At the spa, Bill’s massage is going wrong as his masseuse has already broken her fingers on the brick wall-like tension of Bill’s body, and countless broken acupuncture needles that can't get into his tense skin. After the staff try and calm him down with some meditation, which causes even more stress for Bill, Gramma takes over and knocks him out with her fake leg. While under, Bill has a vision of driving his Kludge (his truck, for non-regular viewers) uphill but so overloaded that it’s weighing him down. His steering wheel comes to life and tells him that the destination is easier if you just let things go. After debate, he finally opens the bed of his truck and lets all the cargo out, achieving inner peace.
Realizing how bad she messed up, Nancy decides to hook the plow up to her motorcycle, and spins donuts around the farm to plow and plant the seeds. Realizing it's nothing like Bill’s plans, she thinks she “beefed it” when Bill and Gramma return home. Bill, still caught in his trance of inner peace, is glad that the job is done, even if not what he originally wanted. Thanking her, Bill gives Nancy spa day passes in return, however, when the misbehaving goat, Melissa, eats them out of his hand, his inner peace is broken when Cricket reminds him of how much they must have cost.
This episode of Big City Greens is now available on Disney Channel and the DisneyNOW app. You can catch up with previous seasons of the show on Disney+.